Word: Whataboutism

[Dan Goncharoff]

Am I the only one who thinks it is strange that a word supposedly used to
describe a Soviet negotiating technique has no 20th century cites?

DanG


On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 11:20 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Word: Whataboutism
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A recent article in The Guardian (UK) used the term "whataboutism" and
> pointed to a 2008 article in The Economist for an explanation.
>
> Newspaper Website: The Guardian
> Date: February 4, 2014
> Article title: Russia's anti-gay law is wrong - but so is some of the
> criticism from the west
> Author: Marc Bennetts
>
>
> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/05/russia-anti-gay-law-criticism-playing-into-putin-hands
>
>
> Periodical: The Economist
> Date: January 31, 2008
> Article title: Whataboutism
> http://www.economist.com/node/10598774
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> SOVIET propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that
> their western interlocutors nicknamed "whataboutism". Any criticism of
> the Soviet Union (Afghanistan, martial law in Poland, imprisonment of
> dissidents, censorship) was met with a "What about..." (apartheid
> South Africa, jailed trade-unionists, the Contras in Nicaragua, and so
> forth).
>
> It is not a bad tactic. Every criticism needs to be put in a
> historical and geographical context.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Wikipedia created an entry for Whataboutism on May 16, 2012. Here is a
> link:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
>
> I did not see the word in the ADS-L archives, Wordspy, or Barry
> Popik's website. I haven't tried to look for early occurrences.
>
> Garson
>
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